The Soviet Union tried that and ended up going bankrupt. What people have to understand is this isn't like Germany or Japan. There is no 'there' to fight or to cede victory. This is a war with a shadowy enemy who fades into the background and comes back to fight another day. It's more like how our ancestors fought against the British. It's how the Indians fought against us with the exception they could not be reequipped.

What gets me with the idea of going all out and killing every Afghani who doesn't please us is how long can we do that and what will we have when it's over? A country we must occupy for more years while the crooks and liars, the ones who don't mind being manipulative and pretending to be our friends, snipe at us. What do we gain when it's done? Bin Laden? He's not there.

I had a friend in the military who said the Soviet Union couldn't win there when they had the greatest military in the world at that time. How much will we put into this, how many innocents will we kill and have killed of our own before we have to say we cannot do it either?

It was infuriating about the innocent people being massacred but what we have to understand is the mentality over there. Anybody who helps their people other than themselves, the Taliban, is the bad guy. They will make up a ton of excuses but that's the bottom-line. We should not allow unarmed innocent workers to go into those regions and that's a terrible loss for the innocent people who live there and need that medical help but we cannot protect them. This was a terrible loss of wonderful people who only wanted to help. The idea is you win the hearts of the people but what if you cannot? What then? You just kill them all? Is that really what you want and for what-- American pride? That doesn't sound very admirable to me.

Why not get bin Laden even if that makes the Pakistanis angry? Why not go after the ones still plotting to kill us through dirty bombs in our cities? What are we hoping to gain by doing what you would like in Afghanistan? If it is get rid of evil, I suggest you look at Africa and I don't mean just Somalia to see how many places you will have to go next? A permanent mercenary army? Is that really to be the product we provide the world? That makes me sick to imagine it might be what the right wants...
 

Are you finally willing to pay for this now with increased taxes? All the wars so far have been on the cuff. Isn't it time to at least pay for it if it's what you convince the American people to do?
 

I know Rain it is far more complex than what I was ranting about. It is just so frustrating to see our people get killed trying to help these people that sometimes seem to want our help and sometimes don't seem to give a rip. Maybe the best plan is to go with a more covert CIA type plan where we are there in small numbers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc.

I don't know, I am just upset about the entire mess that maybe we have lost focus as a nation as to what we went there to do.
 

That's an excellent comment, ingineer. What are we there to do? What should be our focus? What is realistic to expect we can make happen there?

And I felt the same way about those murders. That young woman doctor, she had so much she offered to the world. She only wanted to help based on a loving spirit and they slaughtered her out of their own fear, righteousness and anger. It is infuriating to see such a loss and a person wants someone to pay but the only hope they will pay is through karma as finding them and making them pay a price, that is beyond our ability. Although if the Afghani people would begin to care about their own health, their own country, their quality of life, they could make them pay. As it looks right now, they won't do it-- or can't.